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This evening's music features Texas blues guitarist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Enjoy!

"Before Sept. 11, the idea that Americans would voluntarily agree to live their lives under the gaze of a network of biometric surveillance cameras, peering at them in government buildings, shopping malls, subways and stadiums, would have seemed unthinkable, a dystopian fantasy of a society that had surrendered privacy and anonymity."

-- Jeffrey Rosen

News and Opinion

Today In Dystopia

Today in dystopia Americans are becoming increasingly outraged by the ubiquitousness of Flock’s AI-assisted surveillance cameras throughout US cities. Flock officers getting caught in lies and viral video footage of police abusing their access to the technology have contributed to the outcry, with public vandalism of the cameras taking place with increasing frequency in public spaces.

Today in dystopia the German government is moving to ban workers from calling in sick by phone in order to boost the economy by reducing the amount of sick leave being taken by corporate employees. New regulations would require a certified in-person doctor’s visit on the very first day of sick leave. They’re just coming right out and saying that the public exists to serve the corporations now.

Today in dystopia we’re starting to see videos of quadrupedal robots firing guns with accuracy and minimal recoil. I know we’ve been calling these things “robot dogs” this whole time, but it is a bit of a misnomer when we’ve known from the beginning they were only ever intended as an all-terrain carrying system for autonomous weapons to suppress revolutions.

Robot dogs are evolving. They are firing bullets with minimal recoil. I don't feel good about this. pic.twitter.com/E8MxL1gi3E

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 4, 2026

Today in dystopia YouTube is warning British content creators that proposed UK laws will result in decreased visibility of their videos on the platform, as the new rules would require the amplification of authorized narrative managers like the BBC above independent voices who may not regurgitate the official narratives of the empire.

Today in dystopia the entire western power structure is aggressively pushing the agenda to restrict children’s access to online pornography and social media platforms, which sounds fine until you realize that these laws are unenforceable without massive expansions in the government’s ability to track the internet use of everyone regardless of age. A major age verification law recently passed a House vote in the United States, despite resistance from online rights advocates and watchdog groups.

Today in dystopia the EU has authorized the criminal prosecution of anyone who shares videos from RT online due to sanctions placed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. European private citizens can now wind up doing actual jail time if they share RT videos on their own personal website under this new development.

Today in dystopia the president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola is deploying a rarely used procedure in an effort to force through a controversial authoritarian internet surveillance law called Chat Control which has already been voted down by EU lawmakers. Metsola even cut off the microphone of a German MEP who attempted to argue against the move. Critics of Chat Control say the proposed laws, though ostensibly designed to curb distribution of child sexual abuse material online, would lead to the indiscriminate scanning of virtually all types of electronic communications throughout Europe.

MEPs voted down a bill to fight child sexual abuse material in March.

Now European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is asking them to vote again — using a rarely invoked procedure.

https://t.co/AR4DXu9P4i pic.twitter.com/buWLKNjpBY

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) July 6, 2026

Today in dystopia Australian “eSafety commissioner” Julie Inman is saying she wants the authority to prevent favored users from receiving large numbers of angry comments on social media, formally requesting a “notification power” which would enable her to demand that social media platforms suspend accounts who are contributing to “an avalanche of online hate” for an Australian deemed worthy of protection. Australian government officials and other high-profile public figures frequently find themselves “ratioed” by hostile comments from Australians who disagree with them; Inman’s proposal would conveniently bring an end to this type of public square accountability.

Today in dystopia activists have constructed an open-sourced website called Israel Exposed — War Crimes Archive to house video footage of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, because they know there’s going to be an ongoing effort to permanently erase the footage from every corner of the internet.

Today in dystopia top Israeli ministers have been openly and explicitly admitting to the premeditated elimination of entire Shia villages in Lebanon, but the entire western political/media establishment refuses to call it ethnic cleansing. This is because western politicians are empire managers, and western news broadcasters are propagandists.

Today in dystopia the governments are getting more and more secretive while forcing the public to become more and more transparent as our rulers construct a panopticon of surveillance systems all around us and develop robot armies to murder us if we ever try to turn against them. They are doing this while rapidly eroding our freedom of speech and rapidly shrinking our ability to find unauthorized information online, and while continuing their murderous atrocities around the globe to ensure the continuation of their planetary domination.

The longer we wait for revolution, the more weapons they’ll have in place to stop us.

Pepe Escobar: Iran WIPES OUT Trump's Move – Middle East Will NEVER Be the Same Again

Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israeli jail, lawyer says

One of Gaza’s most prominent doctors is almost unrecognisable because of severe injuries inflicted in Israeli detention, his lawyer has said, and faces “tangible danger to his life” after being held for 18 months without charge or trial.

Hussam Abu Safiya met his lawyer on 2 July, after a transfer to Israel’s notorious underground Rakefet prison in late June. He had difficulty breathing and speaking continuously, was so weak he struggled to sit upright, and repeatedly seemed on the verge of losing consciousness, said his lawyer, Nasser Odeh.

Abu Safiya, who was the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza until he was seized by Israeli forces, said he feared for his life. “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end,” Odeh quoted him as saying, in a joint statement with Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), who along with other organisations are calling for his release.

His detention is part of a broader pattern of Israeli attacks on healthcare across occupied Palestine, said Milena Ansari, PHRI’s director for the area.

Abu Safiya had become the face of health workers struggling to treat patients throughout the war in Gaza before his detention. He is being held indefinitely, along with thousands of other Palestinian civilians, in prisons that Israeli rights groups say have become torture camps.

Col Douglas Macgregor: War to the Last Missile in Iran

Israeli command system identified 850,000 targets in Gaza and Lebanon wars, says supplier

Israel identified about 1,000 potential targets a day during the first two years of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon with its command and control system, according to a presentation by the country’s largest arms supplier, Elbit Systems. A total of 850,000 targets were detected in real time by the Israeli Tzayad digital army programme across all the military’s theatres of war between 7 October and the end of 2025, the company said at a military conference in London.

It describes the number of people, vehicles and other objects detected in real time for possible follow-up attack from land, sea or air, and illustrates the high intensity of the deadly wars fought by Israel over the last three years. The 850,000 total was presented at a land warfare conference organised last week by the Royal United Services Institute by Miki Edelstein, an IDF reservist major general, who is an executive vice-president of Elbit.

A slide presented by Edelstein to the largely military audience included a line describing the “high-tempo operations” run by the Israel Defense Forces, and cited more than 20,000 IDF battle plans and 850,000 “R.T. [real-time] intel targets”. The targets were described by Edelstein as “an enemy that we are not aware of before”, that “pops up” from under the ground or by manoeuvre, “and we want to hit it accurately” but “don’t have enough ammunition” to do so immediately.

Wes Bryant, a former senior targeting adviser and policy analyst at the US Pentagon who specialised in civilian harm assessments, said he believed the 850,000 figure was highly concerning. There were 2.2 million people and 300,000 buildings in Gaza before October 2023, the main theatre of war in the two years following, Bryant said, suggesting that the IDF had at one point or another targeted “up to or over half the entire population and infrastructure” of the territory.

Bryant said it was impossible for soldiers in any military to adequately assess each piece of information to conclude if the threat was real and the target legal at the volumes indicated. “I will say, definitively, that there is no way each and every one of the 1,000 targets a day – let alone 850,000 targets in aggregate – are thoroughly and effectively characterised in terms of collateral damage analysis and assessed risk to civilian populations. Even characterising 50 a day is hard enough (but possible),” the former US military officer said.

Seyed M. Marandi: Iran Strikes Ships as the U.S. Tests Iran's Control Over the Strait of Hormuz

Hamas offers to hand over authority in Gaza to US-backed administration

Hamas has announced its intention to hand over governing authority in Gaza after two decades in power, and has invited a US-backed interim administration to take over the running of the Palestinian territory. It was not immediately clear how far Monday’s announcement would go towards strengthening an only partially observed ceasefire in Gaza or improving conditions in the besieged coastal strip which is still in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

While announcing that it was ready to hand over security as part of a transition, the Hamas statement made no promise to disarm unilaterally as Israel and the US have demanded.

The interim administration to which Hamas has offered to transfer governance, known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), has been blocked from entering Gaza by Israel since its creation in January as part of a US-brokered ceasefire, adding further doubt to the timing of any future handover.

Analysts said the Hamas announcement was largely a symbolic gambit aimed at reviving a stalled peace process that has blocked reconstruction and humanitarian relief for Gaza’s surviving 2.1 million population. They also said the move was designed to counter Israeli-led proposals to limit relief, reconstruction and NCAG governance to a tiny proportion of Gaza’s population in purpose-built villages in the roughly 60% of Gaza under direct Israeli army control.

The Trump administration has given backing to the plan for which officials have variously referred to as a “humanitarian city”, “alternative safe communities”, or “New Rafah” – but which the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has called a “concentration camp”.

Larry Johnson: IRGC Missiles Strike 2 Ships in Strait of Hormuz – Major Damage

UK charity funding school at heart of illegal Israeli settlement expansion

A British charity is funding a religious school at the heart of expansion plans for the illegal Israeli settlement in the Palestinian city of Hebron. Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent nearly £200,000 to the school between 2019 and 2024, the last year for which accounts are publicly available on the website of the Charity Commission, the charity regulator for England and Wales.

Construction of a new dormitory for the school was approved in June, after the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, unilaterally broke a decades-old international agreement on control of Hebron to give Israel planning authority. The expansion will increase the population of one of the most extreme Israeli communities in the occupied West Bank, and the only one built in the heart of a Palestinian city.

“We want British charities to fund peace, not to fund obstacles for peace. This is very wrong,” said Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights defender from Hebron and co-founder of Youth Against Settlements. “The students at this yeshiva are very aggressive. A new building will mean more violence towards Palestinians, more restrictions, more Israeli military presence.”

Israel has built extensive systems of militarised separation to isolate several hundred settlers inside Hebron from the city they moved into. Palestinians are barred entirely from some streets, and walls and gates divide Palestinians who live in areas under Israeli military control from most of the 230,000 population. “For this yeshiva to exist, thousands of Palestinians have already lost their shops, their housing and their daily livelihood in the heart of a Palestinian city,” said Hagit Ofran, from the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now. “The new dormitory is a significant development because they are adding more settlers in Hebron, the most extreme settlement, where apartheid is everywhere.”

Hebron Yeshiva seeks funding in other countries that consider settlements in occupied Palestine illegal, offering donations “with receipts” in France
and Canada. An Israeli crowdfunding tech company, Israelgives, has also facilitated millions of dollars in funding for settlements from US residents.

Zio-Chudverse TRIGGERED by Mamdani July 4th Speech

‘We are Iran’s true missiles’: millions gather in Tehran for day four of Ali Khamenei’s funeral

Iranians poured in vast numbers on to the central thoroughfare of Tehran on the fourth day of mourning for the assassinated former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, claiming their defiance through months of on-off war had only made them stronger as many called for revenge. For those in the procession, it was as much a display of patriotism as mourning: a demonstration that Iran, as an ancient civilisation, had uniquely taken on the world’s greatest superpower and survived. “We the people are Iran’s true missiles,” one banner read.

Vengeful chants against the US president, Donald Trump, could be heard while walking down the lightly policed and tree-lined Azadi Street towards Revolution Square. But there were also a sense of quiet release for some of those present, as if this was their first moment to share their survival– a moment to catch breath and continue, proud of Iran’s identity if not their government. “Welcome to our Iran” was the most common greeting to the stranger in their midst.

It was a sharp contrast to the sadness and religiosity of the prayers in the Grand Mosalla mosque at the start of the six-day funeral for Khamenei. “Of course, Iran has won the war, take a look at the population in the streets. If Trump dies today, will people attend his funeral,” asked Fatima Zadeh, who was part of the procession. “I want the war to restart, we want to destroy the oppressors and we are after revenge. These people are here not to mourn and shed tears, they came here to become united and gain strength,” she said.

Some in the procession, meanwhile, accosted reporters to say Iran’s leaders now needed to race to build a nuclear weapon. “Would Japan have been attacked at Hiroshima if it had nuclear weapons?” asked Reza Aziz. “Would Russia be safe after the Ukraine invasion? Why is it OK for Israel to have nuclear weapons and not to sign the nuclear non proliferation treaty?”

Standing in the shade of a bus stop with a “kill Trump” poster, Mohammad Mousabvi, 50, a gymnastics coach, saw this as a clash of civilisations. “Yes I came to preserve the memory of our imam, but I also came to confront Trump. This road is the pathway of the Islamic civilisation and with the help of God it will prevail over the civilisation of neoliberalism. We have taught and continued to teach the westerners that western civilisation is nothing but a dead end. The revenge of our leader is through decimating Israel and America for ever. Our civilisation is based on theprophet Mohammed, Moses, Jesus, but the western civilisation is made of the people of Epstein Island.” All this was spoken in a tone of complete equanimity.

Chinese government tells critics not to ‘overinterpret’ missile test in Pacific as criticism grows

China’s missile test in the Pacific did not comply with international law and was conducted with “insufficient notice” to nearby countries, officials in the US and Australia have said, amid growing international condemnation. But a Chinese government spokesperson claimed the test was “safe” and part of “routine” military training, telling critics to “not over-interpret it.”

China’s state news agency Xinhua reported the test involved a “strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead” launched from a “strategic nuclear submarine of the navy”. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, according to a translated version of remarks posted on an official government website, said the test launch “is a routine part of China’s annual military training, in accordance with international law and practice, and is not directed against any specific country or target.”

“Relevant countries were notified in advance, and it complies with international law and practice. The launch activity was conducted safely, systematically, and professionally throughout. We hope relevant countries will not over-interpret it.”

Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s national security council, posted on social media a map purporting to show the missile’s path travelling south-east of China, going over the Philippines and passing Micronesia and Palau, landing south of Nauru.

Australian government minister Richard Marles declined to say what Australia’s information was about the location of the missile test, but conceded it was “not particularly close” to Australia. He also raised concerns about China’s capabilities. “What we’re seeing here is a long range missile test from China, which China itself has said, is nuclear capable. It’s been launched from a submarine, which also has implications here,” he told ABC TV. “This is China demonstrating a much greater range in terms of being able to deploy a nuclear weapon.”

‘Living like this is agony’: Cuba suffers third nationwide blackout in six months

Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said. The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US president, Donald Trump, imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants.

“There has been a total disconnection from the national electricity generation system,” the UNE power utility wrote on X, adding that it was investigating the causes.

The blackout is the eighth on the island of 9.6 million people since late 2024. The state has imposed increasingly draconian power cuts across the country – over 24 hours at a stretch in parts of Havana and over 70 hours in some rural areas – in an increasingly desperate attempt to conserve fuel.

The government has invested heavily in solar energy to try to alleviate the electricity shortages but solar power, while increasing, still represents just 10% of the energy mix.

George Galloway on UK political chaos & the fall of Western democracies

European Parliament to Debate Spyware After ‘Brazen Targeting’ of EU Lawmaker Who Probed Pegasus

The European Parliament narrowly voted Monday to hold a debate on spyware after recent revelations that the phone of Stelios Kouloglou, a Greek journalist and former member of the European Parliament, “was repeatedly hacked with NSO Group’s Pegasus” while he sat on the body’s committee investigating abuses of the technology.

The vote came amid a fresh wave of calls for action. Elina Castillo Jiménez, advocacy and policy adviser for Amnesty International’s Security Lab, said in a Monday statement that “the brazen targeting of someone in his position underlines how inadequate the current system is, and is yet another wake-up call that the protections that were put in place to prevent this kind of abuse are still not being implemented in Europe.”

“Three years ago, the European Parliament’s PEGA Committee, on which Stelios Kouloglou sat, issued clear and detailed recommendations for how to close the gaps that allow this abuse to continue. We are still waiting for implementation. Delaying it sends the wrong message about impunity in the surveillance industry.”

Castillo Jiménez argued that “European leaders must find the political will needed to protect people from spyware abuse. An independent and impartial investigation into this attack, together with a roadmap for implementing PEGA recommendations, is urgently needed. If an elected member of parliament is not safe from unlawful surveillance, then no one is.”

Amnesty was also part of a Monday joint statement with individual experts and organizations including Access Now, Center for Democracy and Technology Europe, Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and more, calling out the European Union for failing “to deliver a meaningful, EU-wide response to the proliferation and abuse of commercial spyware.”

Global calls for restrictions on surveillance technology have mounted since the Pegasus Project—an international media consortium led by the media nonprofit Forbidden Stories, with tech assistance from Amnesty—published a 2021 exposé of the Israeli firm’s software that was developed to secretly infiltrate mobile phones.

AI CEOS PANIC After Public Outrage Over Job Loss

Prosecutors begin to present case against man accused of Charlie Kirk killing

Utah prosecutors began presenting their case against Tyler James Robinson in the killing of Charlie Kirk on Monday, as part of a five-day preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed to trial. Dozens of exhibits are expected to be presented over the week to state district judge Tony Graf, including several videos of the 10 September shooting, which occurred as the far-right commentator spoke to large crowds at Utah Valley University last year.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Robinson, the 23-year-old who is accused of fatally shooting Kirk, and who has been charged with aggravated murder. They have claimed there is DNA evidence that links Robinson to the weapon believed to be used in the killing, and say Robinson allegedly confessed to the assassination in a note he left his roommate and romantic partner. Prosecutors were also expected to argue that the shooting placed other people at the event in danger, which would amount to an aggravating circumstance that could make the crime eligible for the death penalty. Robinson’s attorneys have not yet entered a plea in the case, but have worked, so far unsuccessfully, to get the death penalty taken off the table.

Two witnesses were brought to the stand on day one: former Utah Valley University officer Christopher Bagley, and former Utah state bureau of investigation agent David Hull. Bagley described the moments leading up to the shooting, and hearing a loud gunshot. “Everybody kind of got up. A lot of people were screaming and starting to run in all different directions,” Bagley told the court. Bagley searched for additional victims, but finding none, moved to contain the scene to preserve evidence, he said. Police initially believed they had the shooter in custody.

After observing that a nearby building had a direct line of sight to where Kirk was speaking at the time he was shot, Bagley said he went to the building’s rooftop where he saw evidence that he believed indicated a sniper had been there, including a “disturbance” in the gravel. His body camera stopped recording while he was on the roof, he said. “I think my battery died. I don’t know,” Bagley said on the stand. He said he did not find any spent casings there and did not return to the roof after charging his body camera. Bagley also said there were six officers working the event, attended by thousands of people, and that there were no drones or metal detectors used for security.

Hull, the SBI agent, said hundreds of hours of video were reviewed by investigators as they sought to track the suspect’s movements. They used university surveillance footage and Ring home security video, captured from the doorway of a nearby home, along with cellphone videos of the incident shared by the public. Unlike the more definitive proof required to return a guilty verdict, the bar for moving a case to trial is much lower, and legal experts believe prosecutors will be able to clear it. “This standard is extremely low, and the chances of them not getting through it are, quite frankly, almost nothing,” Mark Kouris, who was a prosecutor and state judge in Salt Lake City, told the Associated Press. The hearing will resume on Tuesday, with Hull returning to the stand to continue testifying.

Conservative fight against license renewals for ABC stations heats up

A group of prominent conservative organizations has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny license renewal requests from the eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC, accusing the network of political, racial and sexual bias and supporting the Chinese communist party.

The petitions come after the commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, took the nearly unprecedented step of requiring the network, a frequent recipient of attacks from Donald Trump, to apply several years early to maintain its ability to broadcast in markets around the country. While Carr has said the early license renewal process stems from an FCC investigation into ABC’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, petitioners are free to include a variety of grievances against the network and concerns about whether ABC is operating in the public interest.

The petitions – part of an open process that allows anyone to argue that ABC is not fit to hold publicly owned television licenses – came from groups like the Center for American Rights, which has played a significant role during Carr’s tenure atop the FCC agency as an initiator of complaints against major broadcast television networks. In a petition to deny filed last Monday, the group said the stations were not being operated “in the public interest” in part because ABC’s programs “show a consistent and overt partisan bias”, citing the group’s past complaints about late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and the network’s moderation of a 2024 presidential debate, among other concerns.

“ABC ignores long-standing Commission precedents and principles protecting the integrity of the news,” the group wrote. “ABC engages in explicit racial and gender discrimination. ABC cozies up to the Communist Chinese Party and airbrushes over religious and ethnic cleansing. ABC fails to respect this Commission’s rules.” The organization lobbied the FCC to deny ABC’s renewal requests and to call the matter for a hearing, “because the Petition and accompanying materials raise sufficient questions [about] whether ABC is operating in the public interest or remains worthy of the public trust”.

The FCC accelerated the timeline for ABC’s license renewals in April after the White House called for Kimmel to be ousted over a joke he made about Melania Trump. The FCC is also investigating whether the daytime talkshow The View violated equal time provisions around political candidates appearing on programs after an appearance by the Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who is polling strongly against the Republican hopeful Ken Paxton.

Calls grow for Graham Platner to drop out after sexual assault allegation

Calls for Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, to withdraw his candidacy intensified Monday after a woman accused him of sexual assault in an exclusive report by Politico. While Platner denied the claims, many top Democratic figures quickly called on the beleaguered nominee to step down. In a joint statement, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Kirsten Gillibrand said Platner should “immediately withdraw”.

“The allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing – violence, abuse and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable,” they said. “The DSCC will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot.” In the Politico report, published on Monday, Jenny Racicot, 41, who previously dated Platner, said he forced her to have sex despite repeated objections. Platner denied the claims in a statement to Politico. “These allegations are troubling, serious, and false. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically untrue,” he said.

Racicot told the outlet she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner for more than two years. She alleges that in late 2021, an intoxicated Platner entered her home uninvited and forced himself on her. Racicot said she terminated contact after the encounter. The report cited accounts from a man Racicot later confided in, as well as recent therapist emails, and messages where she warned an acquaintance about Platner in 2023.

Platner’s campaign said the senatorial candidate “vigorously denies” the claims. “These allegations are very serious and Graham vigorously denies them,” the statement said. “They are also coached and coordinated by out of state establishment operatives. For a year, opponents of this campaign have thrown everything they can at Graham – calling him a Nazi, a war criminal, and a communist. None of it has been true and this is no different. It is not a coincidence that this story comes a week before the ballot deadline, just as the previous false allegations came a week before the primary."

pic.twitter.com/9itIt4Mw25

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026

Air pollution linked to DNA changes in sperm, research shows

Air pollution appears to alter how sperm genes function, one of the largest fertility studies of its kind has found. Men exposed to common air pollutants while sperm were developing showed subtle DNA changes that affected whether genes were switched on or off, raising fresh concerns air pollution may harm male fertility. The findings, presented on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in London, identified ozone and nitrogen dioxide as the pollutants most strongly linked to these so-called epigenetic changes.

Dr Carrie Nobles, an epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who led the work, said: “Our findings suggest that air pollution exposure during key stages of sperm development may be associated with changes in sperm DNA.” The study followed more than 2,000 men in Salt Lake City, Utah, between 2013 and 2017. Participants provided semen samples when they enrolled and again after two, four and six months. Researchers estimated each participant’s exposure to outdoor air pollutants – including ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and fine particulate matter – during the three months before each sample was collected, corresponding to the period of sperm production.

Growing evidence suggests air pollution could reduce male fertility but the biological mechanisms have been unclear. The latest work points to DNA methylation – chemical tags attached to DNA that regulate whether genes are switched on or off without changing the genetic code – as one possible explanation. Scientists analysed sperm DNA methylation in the 1,220 men who provided a sample at the six-month follow-up. They identified 39 DNA changes linked to air pollution mixtures, with ozone and nitrogen dioxide appearing to have a strong influence.

Most epigenetic tags are erased early in embryo development but some genes are “imprinted” with these changes, meaning they have the potential to influence embryo development and beyond. One of the genes identified, GNAS, has previously been linked to poorer semen quality and foetal development.

‘Why take those jobs away?’: the unionized workers decrying Trump’s war on wind

Donald Trump has blamed everything – from “national security” issues, the deaths of birds and whales, and cancer – in his decades-long campaign against windfarms. But as the Trump administration continues to undermine the industry, what worries workers most are their jobs. Since taking office for a second term, Trump has issued an executive order aiming to halt all wind-energy leases and permits, attempted to issue stop-work orders on wind projects under construction, and paid more than $2.6bn in settlements to buy out wind energy leases. And hundreds of workers have been affected.

Thomas Kilday, a furnace electrician with IBEW local 99 in Providence, Rhode Island, was in the midst of a four-week shift onboard a vessel off the Atlantic coast working on the Revolution Wind Project in August last year when the Trump administration issued a stop-work order on the project. “No one really knew what was going on. We didn’t know what it meant for us. We just knew that everything was up in the air,” said Kilday. “You plan your whole life around being gone for 28 days, and to come out here and have it thrown up in the air, worrying what does this mean for me, for my pay for the next four weeks, what’s going to happen? There’s a lot of uncertainty.”

Construction on the project is done on shifts of 28 days on and 28 days off, with workers residing on a vessel on the ocean and taking helicopters to work on the turbines. A federal court granted an injunction to block the stop-work order in September last year. In December, the Trump administration issued another 90-day stop-work order, citing national security, before a second judge issued an injunction in January.

Revolution Wind announced in March that it began delivering power to New England, citing the work of more than 1,000 local union workers, and is expected to power more than 350,000 homes and businesses. The project’s construction is over 90% complete. In June, the Trump administration abandoned an effort to try to halt all wind projects and leases across the US, giving up a challenge in court to a judge tossing Trump’s executive order to freeze all permitting and leasing for wind projects. Instead, the Trump administration has opted to buy out wind project leases.

Trump’s Department of Interior has completed four deals so far to cancel wind project leases, paying energy corporations a sum of more than $2.6bn, including paying $765m to Invenergy to abandon four wind projects in California, New York and Maine and nearly $900m to Bluepoint Wind and Garden State Wind to cancel offshore wind leases in New York and California. “I think it’s a foolish policy that the Trump administration is engaging in trying to buy out these leases,” Pat Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, told the Guardian. “These projects are not only helping to reduce our carbon emissions, they’re providing good-paying union jobs for thousands.”

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.

Two and a Half Centuries of War – A Timeline

Trump Threatens To Destroy Iran’s Bridges and Energy Infrastructure If No Deal Reached

Iran War: Iran Stance Hardening in Connection with Funerals for Supreme Leader and Other Martyrs; Strait of Hormuz Dominance Struggle Continues; More on Oil Price Anomalies

Netanyahu Asks U.S. Not To Sell F-35 To Turkey: "Regime Infected By Muslim Brotherhood" That "Chants Death To America"

Russian Strikes Pound Kyiv as Ukraine Fires Over 600 Drones Into Russia

Kremlin Dismisses Reports About Potential Russian Attacks on Poland as ‘Horror Stories’

US Provides $300 Million in Earthquake Recovery Money to Venezuela While Sitting on $8 Billion in Stolen Oil Wealth

US-Israel Military Merger Delayed: Here’s Why and How You Can Stop It

Most US Jobs Won’t Support An American Lifestyle

‘Better safe than sorry’: Greece installs floating barrier to ward off toxic fish

Nominate your invertebrate of the year

A Little Night Music

Clarence Gatemouth Brown - She Winked Her Eye

Clarence Gatemouth Brown – Big Yard

Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown – Alligator Eating Dog

Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown – The Drifter

Clarence Gatemouth Brown – Dollar Got The Blues

Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown – River's Invitation

Roy Clark & Gatemouth Brown – J. H. Boogie

Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens

Clarence Gatemouth Brown – St Louis Blues